, 1887-09-11

the biggest liar of min. / told Mickey if
liver | met his aquil, or his better, I'd
drink a pipin' wan tew his good health.
Misther landlord, may the top NV yer
head never foller yer hair!"
Quiet was soon restored, when a great
hulking fellow, Just on his way to the
lumber camps, with a voice like a pre-
MUM Kentucky horse fiddle, cleared his
his throat with a sound like a clap of
thunder, and remarked: Il amt much
on reg lar damned lies, but / can tell ye
what [ seed myself il II up in this
kentrY in the musketer line, if We want
ter near it." After a little persuasion,
agreeable to the customs of the country,
the gentleman untutored in prevarication,
gave us what | will call
The Lumberman's Story.
We'll, L heerd how as lumber was
from $40 to 800 a thousand up at Fort
Gary them times, and wantin' to find out,
so | could raft it DOWN the Otter trail into
the Red, and then north to Winnipeg, l
started for Winnipeg, taking the stage TO
Abercrombie. Their was four stage loads
on US, packed stiff-a lot of Canucks
under Capt. Moberly was goin' from
Gary out to the Rockies fur to locate a
line fur the Canadian Pacific n Their wuz
a big crowd. We got started and | guess
the same night we come to Georgetown.
on the Rcd river. There was jest two
houses there then, the Hudson bay COM
pany's tradin' post and the log hotel, and
jest two wimmin-the hotel keepers wife
and Dutch hired girl [ thought it wuz
funny at supper when I seed a little
woman, kinder pale like and with big,
scary eyes, a settin' down with us. | be
gun to ask about her. but nobody knowed
her and nobody cared to know her. She'd
eat a bit and then she'd laugh right out
and say, OF course, George, you won't
let me be hurt, will you, George? Oh,
it's a long, long ways, though, George.
Now, see here boys, I'm tough, l
know; but. by thunderl I've got a mother
and sisters, and it all kinder struck me
here was a woman as was needin' help.
So after supper, | sorter edged up to her
and says, purity kind fur me: BE yer
goin' fur in this kentry. mom2' She
laughed right out at me at first, an |
got purity DANCED hot n riled. n wuz
goin' fur to git, but she clutched me say
in Do you know George2' l says, L
know lots of Georges, but mebbe l amt
got onto your George yet
Then she says, in a whisper like,
I know what they're tryin' of to
do. They re trying of to send me back
to Toronto. But I'll fool 'em, L will.
George is the governor at the lower Fort
Gary. He writ me to come, and I'm
send me back will YEP Now l seed the
woman wus a little off, an 1 told the boys
all around. We all begun inquirin' and
found the woman hadn't a penny to
her name. She'd come through so far on
an emigrant ticket from Toronto over
by Collin wood to Gary, an from
what she said [ knew she was
expcctin' to meet a brother, or lover, or
sumthin' of that sort, somewhere but wus
all off her base, an had to be cared for.
So we all kinder agreed to chip in and
see her through. We paid the landlords
wife IS to clean her up, and bimeby as
the sun was settin' over across the Red,
sorter goin' chuck down into the perairer
on the Dakoter side, she said as how she
guessed she'd take a bit of a walk. She
looked real bright and purity, as she went
off. bareheaded, and the red sunlight all
over her splendid hair.
I'VE all agreed to keep an eye on her,
but if any OF you gentlemen know jest
how holdin' a good game of poker is. you
can understand how we didn't do Jest the
fair thing about tendin' to the little body
that wus all alone with us rough uns, and
all broke up besides. Well, the crowd
sorter was a stayin' crowd, an we all
went to bed in the stages, or anywhere
We could bunk down, an when a mornin'
came, we missed our little ~scary-eyed
lady.
Where's she gomez everybody yelled,
J and we all turned out to find her. The
stages wuz to go early, to make the Red
river boats, at Frog Point, but we Jest
told them stage men nothin' went till the
woman went, too. We all felt guilty, you
bet, that we hadn't shut her up some
~where-kinder sat down on her, easy
like-enough anyhow to know where she
wuZ. But she wuZ gone, and L tell yer
them Canuck boys took hold hearty to
skin her out Of her hidin' place. There
wuz thirty on us mebby, n we secured
the whole kentry all that day, all the next
day, all the next night, and the next day,
but no little Canuck woman nowhere. We
was afraid some varmint had chawed her
up, n wuz about givin' it up for good n
all, when my bull dog, that I'd missed for
nigh onto an hour, slid up to me, "a
kinder rolled a look up under his eye
brows that
sEEMED TO MEAN SOMETHING.
1t was dark already n gittin' a torch,
[ asked some Of the boys to foller. That
ar pup sot right out for Buffalo creek, up
the old stage road, rushln' ahead a little,
! then a stoppin' an lookin' back over his
ear in a sorrowin' way, till we come up
We logged long in this way in jerks like
till we got to the creek, crossed the
, bridge. and then the pup scoOted down
'longside the stream n we arter him.
Not more'n two hundred feet from the
bridge he stopped m wouldn't go any
further. l swear l thought the white
skinned onoray cuss d been playing it
: rotten mean on us, but if you'd seen the
r muskeeters Their in them willer bottoms
| yer wouldn't a blamed the dog, fur in the
, minute we'd been in Their Their wuz a
! dozen big drops of blood on the dog.
: Them muskeeters wuz jest the same size
as gallinippers, n every time they bit
, they riz a lump like a hens egg.
We'll, we CROPPED about the bottoms
! near where the pup was a settin' but
l couldn't find nothin', when suddenly l
stumbled over suthin' n went kerswash
into the bog. The torch went out, but
D the pup was with me ter wonct. Gropin'